Theatre

The Real Mrs Sinatra

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Mary Brennan

three stars

WE knew Ol’ Blue Eyes had a mother, of course. But it was the other women in his life – the four wives, the mistresses, even his daughter, Nancy – who could always grab our attention whenever they grabbed the headlines. Doris – who in her own mind was always the real Mrs Sinatra – has plenty to say on son Frank’s marriages and casual infidelities: not much of it remotely approving, although Ava Gardner (wife number two) gets some praise for being able to hold her liquor and not slur her words. In Doris’s estimation, that’s class – but then Doris (Barbara Rafferty in the pink) can certainly sink the bourbon herself.

We see her doing just that, on board a private jet, bound for Vegas to see Frank performing at Cesar’s Palace. With her is the recently widowed Ella (Maureen Carr) who is akin to a human spittoon, forever on the receiving end of Doris’s venomous diatribes against Frank’s gold-digging ex-wives – along with a few snidely dismissive remarks about Ella’s unfaithful husband and talentless children.

Written by Clive King, and directed by Johnny McKnight, it’s a bit of a showbiz crowd-pleaser to open Oran Mor’s autumn Play, Pie and Pint season. A throw-back, too, to the mini-musicals that held the stage before the summer panto. For while Rafferty and Carr are telling us the facts about Doris’s life – a racketty mix of local politicking, prohibition-busting and back-street abortion – we’re reminded of Doris’s true claim to fame: her singing son. As a script, it’s biog-drama by numbers, where the best, the sit-up-in-your-seats and beg for more, numbers are delivered by a tuxedo’d John Kielty as Sinatra. Little mannerisms, phrasing and timing of lyrics, the easy joshing with the audience – Kielty inhabits every detail without descending into mimicry as we wait for Momma’s plane to arrive. It’s an inspired fillip to the Doris and Ella bitch-fest .

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